[VOTE] The Guitar Talk Anthem Challenge

V8

Whooo-weeee!!!! A LOT of entries to get through this month - take a bow y'all - it's likely a record number for the GuitarTalk challenge! Probably also the most diverse collection of genre's too!

And a high standard of production overall - which is gonna making choosing with just one vote really tricky. Also means a few peeps aren't gonna get any votes - don't be discouraged - if we had three votes each, I'm 99.9% certain everyone would get at least one vote.

So do vote AND mention the tracks that gave you a hard time choosing between - it helps make up for the poll's inability to allow more than one vote per voter.

Stoffeltoo (Ft Yeti and Guidothepimmp) - Muscle Cars and Seazy Bars

Don't we all see real life playing out at a pub or bar, where we perform and see the effects of alcohol and lust? So, an anthem to those hoping for the one night stand. A perilous journey.
There are elements of the Eagles, Gilmour and Knopfler in this song from a chords perspective. I can only commend Bevan and Claudio for collaborating via e-mail with their own interpretations of sung and lead versions. Kudo's and respect guys. Without you this song would have stayed in the scrap bin.

Stoffeltoo - Buskers Anthem

A lekker feel sorry for myself song. The only thing between me and some singing recognition is definitely my flat voice. The verse and chorus are separated between second and first person. So even a sidewalk ten cents offer will be recognition enough...The lyrics came to mind in the shower, seven minutes to capture the lyrics on the cell phone notes. Seven hours later and a redo, the result. In recognition to those brave enough for sidewalk gigs.

Wern101 - Waar is jou song

First off, I have zero time to do any more work on this song. Work is hectic and I stole an hour to record this on Monday night. Guitar and vocals into Stagelight on Android and then transferred to reaper. Added limiter and a bit of reverb. My Ibby was out for the count on this one so I used the old Stagg. The song is quite long for which I appologise, but give it a listen and let me know what you think.

It’s not exactly an anthem, but its why I play guitar and sing. The song does take a stab at the ‘popular’ songs that mean absolutely nothing and has no depth. You know the type I’m sure. By the way, it’s an Afrikaans song…

The way I approached this was exactly how I would have loved to perform it one day. Imagine a guy on stage with no band, no backing tracks, no light effects and no sound altering. What you see is what you get. Simple, raw and full of emotion. Making music for the sake of inspiring people, to awaken emotion and thought. Not just another doef doef…. ? Hope you enjoy.

Mijaelle - I believe in the power of love

That's me! Went for pure guitar and vocal, keeping it simple for my first Guitar Talk competition lol
That was fun thanks, haven't composed in a while and I feel like this song represents me because I have come through some pretty tough emotional times in my life (like us all) and have chosen that no matter what, I believe in my dreams and obviously in the Power Of Love. Thanks for the opportunity to create for an audience!

RodneyVikens

DEMO - Touch The Sky by Rodney Vikens
Mixed and Mastered by @ScottyDogg (Soundcloud: ScottyDogg (@scott-naude)
Photo by Banter Snaps on Unsplash
Check out the lyrics here

Guidothepimmp - Anthem to Rock

Its a bit of a mix of all my favourite things (folk rock, funk rock, rock) ?

i started playing at 13 when i could see myself doing epic riffage to metallica and judas priest. Back then was when the grunge era was taking off.. but i was always drawn to chili peppers, ugly kid joe, priest, extreme, skid row etc. The common denominator.. rock of all shapes and sizes... hot rodded high gain amps.. soopa strats.. and spandex pants ?

So for this recording.. i opted for hopefully a catchy riff. High gain.. and some lead fills. Also in the mix was a spandex pants look and feel, and a nod to some folk rock with the acoustic intro stuff

Studmissile - Buckle Bunnies

Unashamedly country. There's a telecaster with twangy tones, double stops, rodeos, cowboys, bulls, broncs and buckle bunnies. How could it possible not be an anthem?

klaasvakie - No Work

Couldn't get the vocals right, but I'm submitting anyway. This is supposed to be a blues anthem for the bedroom musician: you want to make music, but work gets in the way.

You can use your own creativity to add the lyrics (check them here) where you think they should go ? :

V8 - Anthem

Aiming at hard rock, something you'd crank up in the car. Combo of metal verse riffage, 00's angst rock chorus and a side order of V8 oddness (the last 45s).

Still not happy with the arrangement (I *&%^ing hate midi drums!) so I didn't get around to roping in a few peeps for doing vox and solo's. At the moment, it's mostly a rhythm guitar extravaganza. Hope y'all all enjoy the gratuitous riffage and can imagine a fat solo and some great vocals in the places where I meant to plug 'em in ?

ScottyDogg - Purple Cow

So pretty much my mother bought a purple cow toy for my daughter while visiting family in Belgium. It has a pull string and plays a song that gradually winds down. Daughter loves the song (calms her down right away when she's bummed out) so thought it'd be cool to use it in a song. Turns out, a fair bit of quantizing is needed - no built in metronome!

In terms of being an 'anthem' (at least for me as a personal anthem) there are several things that went into the whole thing. Firstly, one of my favourite bands is Thrice - on their album Vheissu (probably my favourite album ever) they have a song called 'Music Box' where they sampled an old music box from Teppei's (lead guitarists) grandmother. Hence my thought to use the purple cow ?

Next, it's sort of a return to my roots - both in songwriting (this is the first song I've written and recorded in it's entirety - musically at least, maybe vocals will come later lol - in around 8 years) and instrumentation. Rather than buggering around with trying to play a particular style, I just played what felt right to me. Also, it's the first time I've tracked with my new bass guitar (I need to go out and learn bass a bit more so I can do some fun stuff).

Finally, who doesn't love harmony leads, quad tracked guitars (in the right places) and tons of gain lol (and a hopefully passable tappy solo ?) - these all seem pretty rock and roll to me.Also - who would've thought a drop B song could sound like this!

warrenpridgeon - Anthem

Here it is... with the warts and all... Not very well mixed etc...

I always say "next time I'll pull finger...".

This song is my anthem about how rock seems to follow me around

Took a while to go through the thread and collect all the info together...If I missed your entry or omitted some blurb, let me know please!

ScottyDogg

Tough vote with some quality songs to choose from!

I'd love to collab on @V8's song

V8

ScottyDogg haha I’ve started off badly for my first vote voting for someone else

Hehe, one I will admit to - I have changed my vote over the course of a week. More than once!

ScottyDogg I'd love to collab on @V8's song

Why thank you - that's far better than a vote ? You are welcome to it anytime, though the ableton arrangement is a dog's breakfast ? - sure I can get some stems out that are usable.

Stoffeltoo

Aah! The penny dropped! Just figured out who Yeti is. Awesome!

Yeti

Stoffeltoo waves ?

RodneyVikens

Oh, I see one can vote for oneself... ???

ScottyDogg

RodneyVikens haha is there no rule or fair play agreement not to do that?

klaasvakie

ScottyDogg I'm not the mod (maybe @V8 will contradict me), but it is definitely allowed and encouraged to vote for oneself. #shameless

Yeti

klaasvakie is that what I've been doing wrong? ?

V8

klaasvakie I'll happily confirm it IS within the rules/spirit to vote for one's self!

Not sure how that one evolved, but over time it did ?

I reckon if it's a very specific topic and you feel that entry (which happens to be yours) is the best, then it should get your vote. It's a subjective objectivity which doesn't have to make logical sense.

And if you understand the above sentence, let me know what I meant ?

guidothepimmp have two criteria. 1. I like the song. 2. It goes with the theme.

Nice!

I'm
1. How creatively was the theme interpreted?
2. Is the guitaring face-meltingly awesome?
3. Do I like it?

I prefer thinking of it as a creative challenge rather than a exercise in developing technical skills (playing/songwriting/production). The nature of the challenge is that you will have to develop some kinda skill in these three technical area's - so by keeping a focus on creative interpretation, it keeps a balance over time (I hope?).

klaasvakie

Yeti I dunno man, my vote always goes to the track I like most, most times it's not me, but I've voted for myself in the past.

ScottyDogg

Yeti haha I’ve started off badly for my first vote voting for someone else ?

ScottyDogg

klaasvakie that sounds pretty reasonable ??

guidothepimmp

I didnt realise one could vote for him/herself.
I dont think i would ever vote for myself. Feels a bit odd in my book.

I have two criteria. 1. I like the song. 2. It goes with the theme.

This time i voted for the one whose riff and vox stuck in my head ?

ScottyDogg

V8 hook me up with stems and I’ll take a look sometime ?

RodneyVikens

Maybe we can do like a massive collab at some stage. We choose a sound engineer (one of us) and a producer (one of us) and then we all record something within the criteria chosen. The producer and sound engineer then finalise the track. =)

Stoffeltoo

RodneyVikens i like the idea! Super!

ScottyDogg

RodneyVikens My thoughts on this would be for someone to write a simple song (maybe a forum poll to decide on genre?) and everyone writes a solo/lead part to throw onto it and one person can edit and put it together and mix it (for consistency, I'd probably recommend recording DI tracks and the person putting it together reamps or uses VSTs for the tones - but this is optional)

Alternatively, we could do a song where like @RodneyVikens suggested, have a producer that can guide songwriting towards a goal of a particular genre and BPM we've decided on (also by poll) and each person is assigned a part to write (e.g. intro, verse, prechorus, chorus, bridge, solo, outro, verse leads, chorus leads etc., drums, bass lyrics and vox) based on a random number generator selection. We'd just have to do this quite linearly for some level of songwriting consistency (i.e. Intro is written by the relevant person, then the verse person writes the verses based on having heard the intro part and so on)

In approach 2, the Producer can be in charge of ensuring consistency and providing feedback on parts where he/she might feel minor changes would suit the song better

Stoffeltoo

ScottyDogg i am willing to lay down drums and bass on BIAB after agreed chord progression. This would be fun

RodneyVikens

Yeah, let's do this.

I like this idea:

ScottyDogg Alternatively, we could do a song where like @RodneyVikens suggested, have a producer that can guide songwriting towards a goal of a particular genre and BPM we've decided on (also by poll) and each person is assigned a part to write (e.g. intro, verse, prechorus, chorus, bridge, solo, outro, verse leads, chorus leads etc., drums, bass lyrics and vox) based on a random number generator selection. We'd just have to do this quite linearly for some level of songwriting consistency (i.e. Intro is written by the relevant person, then the verse person writes the verses based on having heard the intro part and so on)

In approach 2, the Producer can be in charge of ensuring consistency and providing feedback on parts where he/she might feel minor changes would suit the song better

ScottyDogg

Stoffeltoo BIAB

Sweet ?

What's BIAB?

Well we should maybe start by deciding on a project manager? Who's got the time and flexibility to sink in to this?

V8

ScottyDogg What's BIAB

Band In A Box (Mac software that doesn't really have a Windows equivalent), the closest thing I can think of is the Digitech Trio Pedal, the difference being that BIAB works much, much better ?

Sadly I be interface-less - my entry was tracked (as a test) about an hour before it sold. I'm happy to track something, but I'd have to make a plan (always possible).

I do like the idea of a massive collab - if we look at this month entries, we could always have multiple tracks. One could be singer-songwriter with Stoffeltoo, Mijalle & Wern101, rockstars with Guido, Rodney and Scotty, etc..

Stoffeltoo

ScottyDogg
Mac has Garage Band, windows Band in a Box by PG Music. Some genres are very convincing indeed. In addition, midi multi midi styles for virtually every style except death metal, i think.
Exportable, transposable and elastiquated to suit most DAW's.
Pricey but worth every cent if a song writer or comping an idea. Couple of Afrikaans pro artists are users i.e. Dozi and Carlo Leone